The 18th of October, two hours before sunrise, we rode two leagues from Tabernas, and at sunrise, in the distance, we saw a beautiful valley, and on the two banks of a little river, very peaceful gardens and fields full of olives, palms, fig trees and almonds, as if we had traveled to Paradise… The location of the city is at the foot of a mountain, it has the open sea to the south, and on the mountain a superb castle, very big and ample, with many iron grilles. Presently the King is building a new fortress over the old at the top of the mountain, very strong, of very hard dressed stone, which is admirable…. We saw many captives there in chains.
The city is triangular and has a wall full of towers, but in its interior, since an earthquake and after the conquest, is so ruined, that in many places it is uninhabited and destroyed. In former times, there were five thousand inhabited houses; now there aren't even eight hundred. And to any foreigner who arrives with the desire to settle, they will give him a house with lands and olive trees for free, so that he may live comfortably. In this manner, the place will be quickly repopulated.
[The Mosque of Almería]: The mosque, that is, the cathedral of Almería, is one of the most beautiful of all of the Kingdom of Granada. Before the war and the earthquake it had an abundance of merchants... in the city and its district, was made more than 200 centenarios of silk. Because of this and other riches, that temple became fantastic and superb. It is very beautiful. It has more than eighty columns. In the time of the Saracens there were more than a thousand lamps lit in it every day. … a hundred and thirteen paces in length and seventy-two in latitude. They told me that in the time of the Saracens it had fifty priests, who were called faquíes... and every evening, twelve or fourteen of them would ascend the tower, and, with their ears covered up, dressed in white, would holler, according to their custom, "halo halo," etc. And then they would blow the trumpets. Afterwards no one would venture to walk without light through the streets. Now this mosque is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary
Two trustworthy Germans … assured me that in the highest part of the interior of the mosque, in many places, were hung bells, stolen from the Christians in war; that they had perforated these bells all over, and making in their concavity many circles with little candelabra, put in them little lamps, some of them having as much as three hundred lamps in one bell. We also saw two big lamps burning before the altar, with glass of various colors, that they brought from Mecca, in Arabia, where Mahomet is buried. It is not surprising, since maritime cities, which live in commerce, rapidly grow or decrease.
“Prickly Pears”--[Bananas]: The 19th of October, …we entered the Monastery of Saint Francis…..In one of the little gardens we saw that very famous Egyptian tree that has prickly pears. There were five or six trees, one of which had the length of five or six codos, as fat as my leg below the knee. It has very big leaves, of two or more feet in width, and in length ten or twelve. It produces fruit in bunches. The fruit is large and oblong, like a cucumber. In each bunch are thirty, forty or fifty, and when you cut them with a knife a cross appears all over. When they are ripe, they are as sweet as figs… Oh, how beautiful would the fields have been when the Saracens were here in splendor, since they are very skillful in the exquisite positioning of the gardens, of the produce and the irrigation lines, that, if one hadn’t see them, are difficult to believe!”
What Münzer Saw:
Almería, had been an important port under the Caliphate of Córdoba, and later under the taifas. When our travelers arrived there, it was Christian, and the Catholic Kings were taking advantage of a natural disaster (earthquake) and the recent reconquest of the city to get Christians to move there. However, there would be another earthquake in 1497.
The main mosque, re-consecrated as the city’s Cathedral, exists today as the church of San Juan Bautista. When Münzer saw it, it retained its original plan and elegant proportions. The great fortress, constructed by the Moors in the 10th century and added to, had been a city unto itself for the Muslim rulers, much as the Alhambra had been under the Nasrids, with palaces, a mosque and other dependencies. After the Reconquest, it was mainly used by Christians as a military installation, and Fernando was strengthening its fortifications, and confining the conquered Moors there.
Bananas! What can we say? They were exotic fruit from Africa, and Münzer didn't know what they were called!
What Münzer Could Not Have Seen (May 31, 2011):
Almería still retains its triangular shape, but beyond it are resort beaches. Houses all postdate his visit. The Alcázar is being restored to its pre-Fernando glory. Almería is now very much a modern Andalusian city.
The Art Historians Speak:
We’ve given such a lot of Münzer’s observations because it had only surrendered to the Catholic Kings in 1489, so that the travelers saw a devastated city in transition. Subsequent earthquakes, among other things, continued to devastate the region until the
20th century. The mosque that became the Cathedral suffered in a 16th century earthquake, and after that, a newer Cathedral was begun in another location. We didn’t get inside of San Juan Bautista, but the quibla of the Mosque still part of its construction.
The conscientious excavation and reconstruction of the Alcázar to its Caliphate-Taifa golden age is ongoing, as are similar programs throughout Spain. But even scholars can only guess, from a 21st century perspective, what the place would have been like in its Golden Age.
Münzer on the the Road to Granada (Oct. 20-21, 1494).
“20th of October. Three hours before sunrise, ascending continually up some difficult mountains, after seven miles, with a clear moon, we arrived at a beautiful castle called Fiñana; in which the governor, who comes from Vizcaya, a courteous man, conducted us to the fortress. Full with the meal and with cold drinks, more than we were used to, traveling fast through an extensive bare plain for four leagues, we arrived at the celebrated city of Guadix very late at night, and the next morning we visited it at our leisure.
[The City of Guadix in the Realm of Granada]: The city of Guadix reposes over a lovely plain, and beyond, the royal fortress, which is beautifully situated on a mountain united to the plain. Only Christians live here, the Saracens having been expelled. Two attractive monasteries have taken root there, of the Order of Saint Francis and of the Preachers, and others.
Its mosque is pretty and hexagonal, it has seventy free standing columns, and in the center a beautiful covered garden, in the middle of which is a flowing fountain for their accustomed ablutions. Now it is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The 21st of October, leaving Guadix by abrupt and mountainous roads,
Continuing further on, as I said, after three leagues we arrived at the castle of Lapesa, on a very high mountain, and there we spent the night. Everyone there was Saracen, except for the governor, our innkeeper, who put us up at the foot of the mountain. The next morning, always through mountains and valleys for six leagues, we arrived at last at the noblest and grandest city of the Kingdom, called Granada.”
What Münzer Saw on the Road to Granada:
The landscape was (and is) breathtaking: the Sierra Nevada rises to the traveler’s left, varied hills, mountains and valleys are to the right. The higher up one rises, the greener and lusher things get. The castle at Fiñana still partially exists, but the fortress of Guadix is even more fragmentary, and unusually, embedded within the town. Guadix’s “pretty hexagonal mosque” is long gone.
What Münzer Could Have Seen:
The small mosque at Fiñana, doubtless just reconsecrated as a church, is still there. Its minaret no longer exists, and a bell gable was added. It has had all of its remaining structure, including its stucco reliefs (yeserías) restored, and has retained its basic mosque shape with horseshoe arches.
What Münzer Could Never Have Seen (May 31, 2011):
Guadix’s mosque is long gone, replaced by an enormous 16th-18th century church that dominates the city’s landscape. It is now better known for its many caves, which have been converted into apartments, replete with garages and gardens.
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